Cuboy
|image= |caption=Cuboy's modern appearance |gender=Male |special=Nitrome's mascot Appears in games as cameos }}Cuboy (pronounced Q-boy) is the mascot of the indie game studio Nitrome. He made his first appearance as a face on Nitrome.com's first faviconCuboy makes appearances as Nitrome's mascot, on the box of the Nitrome Enjoyment System (Cuboy Seal of Approval) ,has appeared in several places across Nitrome.com, and made many cameos in games.. In certain Nitrome games, he has made several cameo appearances, but does not make an appearance as an interactive game component. Etymology Cuboy's name is derived from the words Cube and boy, from his shape, and his gender. History Cuboy was created by Mat Annal for Nitrome.com 1.0. At that time, Cuboy had no name and was likely not meant to be an official Nitrome character. Mat Annal created Cuboy by drawing a pink square and giving it the face of Hot Air. . Later, when the NES skin was being created, as a joke, Jay D. Smith drew Cuboy with arms and legs and put him into the skin. When Nitrome was overhauling the site to Nitrome.com 2.0, Stefan Ählin often drew Cuboy for use on the site. Physical appearance Cuboy has two appearances, his modern appearance used mostly for Nitrome blog posts, and his classic appearance, his most widely used appearance. Classic appearance Cuboy's classic appearance, which is Cuboy's regular appearance, is Cuboy's most widely used appearance. This appearance depicts him as a pink coloured square with two white rectangular eyes, purple cheeks, and a mouth appearing as a D shape rotated on its side. Although he originally appears pink, in some games, he does not always use have this color when featuring him as a cameo. Notable appearances The classic square appears in the 100th Game skin together with another cuboy in the background but saddened with crossbones. Cuboy's classic appearance and his name appears on the Profile button of Nitrome.com 2.0. In the NES skin, many differently-coloured classic appearance Cuboy faces appear. File:Cuboyinskin.png|100th game skin File:CuboyProfileUnreleased.png|Profile button in Nitrome.com 2.5 File:Cuboy Tetris Game.png|The classic squares in the NES skin with the many differently-coloured Cuboy heads File:Cuboy_older.png|An older version of Cuboy Modern appearance Cuboy's face also gains a modern appearance, shape has rounded corners, and the same with his limbs. His overall face is also smaller. Cuboy's modern appearance was first used on the Nitrome blog, and has been used for various art throughout Nitrome.com. Cuboy appears as he does when in his square appearance, only bigger, his face having more detail, and that he has two small little legs and two small little arms. File:CuboyNeedImage.png|Cuboy in his modern appearance File:Cuboy_Thinking.png|Cuboy thinking in his modern appearance File:Cuter_Cuboy.png|Cuboy bending down slightly in his modern appearance Cuboy Happy.png|Cuboy happy in his modern appearance File:Modern_Cuboy.png|A very modern Cuboy Alternate appearances Cuboy has not appeared as his regular self all the time; he has appeared differently multiple times for different occasions. Friday updates Cuboy's appearance is sometimes altered to commemorate certain occasions. *'Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee'(date unknown) - Cuboy is shown in the Friday update wearing a hat and holding two flags. *'Winter 2011' - To celebrate the winter holidays, Nitrome dressed Cuboy in a Santa hat, with snow falling in the background.Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome. Happy Holidays Nitromians!, December 22, 2011. Retrieved . *'Touchy's release' - Cuboy is shown with wings and an angelic expression on his face on the first Friday update after Nitrome Touchy was released.Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome. Friday Update!, November 2, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2013. *'90% completion' - Cuboy wears a Viking helmet in the Friday update of November 16, 2012. This update announced Icebreaker iOS' progress of passing the 90% mark to completing development of the game.Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome. Friday Update!, November 16, 2012. Retrieved... *'Android release' - Cuboy wears an Android costume and is placed between two Nitrome Touchy devices.Game Developer's Blog - Nitrome. November 24, 2012. *'Flightless' - Cuboy wears is seen in the December 7th 2012 Friday update wearing the hats of the ducks from Flightless. *'Winter 2012' - Similar to the winter of 2011, Cuboy is shown wearing a Santa hat. At the same time, he is being kicked by a vanilla ice cream character. This update, posted on December 21, 2012, was to correspond with the release of Bad Ice-Cream 2, also on the same day. His speech bubble reads, "Merry Christmas!" *'Winter 2013' - In this update, posted on December 20, 2013, Cuboy appears as a snowman. This blog post was announcing Nitrome leaving the office for Winter break, so Cuboy's speech bubble reads "We're off!". *'Icebreaker A Viking Voyage Android release' - Cuboy appears as a viking next to a pink hammer with a Cuboy face on it. *'Nitrome Jam' - Cuboy appears as a can of jam that has "2014" on it, which was used for the May 30, 2014 Friday update right before the Jam. *'Turn-Undead' - Cuboy appears wearing a hat that the main character wears. *'Halloween avatars' - In a blog post posted on October 24, 2014 announcing Halloween avatars, Cuboy is seen wearing a Halloween pumpkin. British Cuboy2.png|First appearance - for Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Happyholidays.png|Second appearance - for Christmas File:Friday_with_Wings.png|Third appearance - for the release of the Nitrome Touchy Friday Update - Cuboy Viking.png|Fourth appearance - Cuboy dressed as a Viking for an update about Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage Android Friday.png|Fifth appearance - Cuboy dressed up for the release of Nitrome Touchy on the Android Friday-flightless.png|Sixth appearance - Cuboy dressed up as a Flightless duck Christmas_Ice_Cream_and_Cuboy.png|Seventh appearance - Cuboy in a Santa hat being kicked by a vanilla ice cream character WinterCuboy.png|Eighth appearance - Cuboy as a snowman for Nitrome's 2013 Christmas break 10153188_10152007252681594_34035553404646832_n.png|Ninth appearance - Cuboy dressed as a Viking, next to a hammer with the face of Cuboy, celebrating the Kraken level pack and Icebreaker A Viking Voyage's Android release 1084-1401461859-friday_jam.png|Tenth appearance - for Nitrome Jam 1163-1412350631-smilehunter -blahblah-.png|Eleventh appearance - a Friday update picture with Cuboy wearing the hat worn by the main character from Turn-Undead Pumpkin Cuboy.PNG|Twelfth appearance - a Friday update picture with Cuboy dressed as a Halloween pumpkin Thursday updates Occasionally, Nitrome provides Thursday updates on their blog when they will not be at their office on that Friday. This is usually because of a holiday. In these Thursday updates, Nitrome sometimes uses an image of Cuboy saying "Thursday!?", indicating that it is not usual for there to be a weekly update on Thursday instead of Friday. Nitrome_thursday_update.png|The Thursday update image Other appearances Another change for Cuboy came for the demo advertisement, which depicted a transparent Cuboy with only an outline of his body and face being present, giving the sense of a blueprint. What seems to be an 8-bit Cuboy can be seen on the "Touchy" button on the Navigation panel, as well as a picture of his head on the Profile button. File:Cuboy_ad.png|Cuboy for the demo ad File:CuboyTouchy.png|Cuboy on the Nitrome Touchy button File:Profile tab.png|Cuboy on the Profile button. NES appearances Cuboy's NES appearance is Cuboy's least appearing appearance, given this name as it has only been seen on Nitrome Enjoyment System (NES) material. This appearance depicts Cuboy as having a rectangular body, being taller than in his modern appearance. Cuboy has two small, stubby hands and two small, stubby feet. This appearance is not much different than Cuboy's modern appearance, other than this appearance (NES appearance) giving Cuboy a tad longer face, Cuboy's face lacking detail, and appearing more cube like. This face also appears on the Nitrome seal of approval, Nitrome's parody of the Nintendo Seal of Approval. File:CuboyNESfaceup.png|NES Cuboy face up File:CuboyNESside.png|NES Cuboy from the side Cuboy_Tetris_Game.png|NES Cuboy face up in Nitrome's take on Tetris, a foreshadowing of Nitrometris Cuboy Game.png|NES Cuboy from the side in Nitrome's take on Rainbow Island Seal-of-approval.png|Cuboy on the Nitrome seal of approval - parody of Nintendo's Seal of Approval History After it was accepted as a Nitrome character on November 15, 2010Cuboy's appearance on a Nitrome blog post, and his many cameos afterwards, signify he has been accepted as a Nitrome character., Cuboy began to appear much more often in Nitrome related content. Cuboy's possible first appearance was when Nitrome.com 1.0 was launched, represented on the favicon for the site in his classic square appearance. His remained unnamed until November 15, 2010, when the first Nitrome blog post about the Nitrome Enjoyment System box revealed the mascot's name to be "Cuboy" on the Nitrome Seal of Approval.. Prior to the revealing of his name, Cuboy could only be seen in a few site areas of Nitrome.com, but had not made any in-game appearances. It was after the revealing of Cuboy's name that he first appeared on the NES skin, previewing Nitrome Tetris. With the release of Nitrome.com 2.0, Nitrome began posting Friday updates. Every Friday, highlights from earlier posts that week would be recapped. These posts would feature an image of Cuboy shouting, "Friday!" On special occasions, or when a Friday update is missed, the image would be altered to match the occasion. When Nitrome missed a Friday update, they instead opened with a similar Friday post, only with Cuboy saying, "Tuesday?" instead of "Friday!" Nitrome's December 22 update in 2011 featured an image of Cuboy wearing a Santa hat. Appearances Cuboy has made several appearances across multiple Nitrome media. Below is a list of all its appearances, sorted into sub-sections by game. Games Cuboy game :Main article: Cuboy game Cuboy appears as the hero of this Rainbow Island parody. Cuboy apparently can jump, walk on platforms, and throw hammers (all this evident from the screenshot of the game). Cuboy appears in his NES appearance. Cuboy_Game.png|The Cuboy game in the NES skin Nitrometris In an image taken from the NES skin, Cuboy appears as the host of a multiplayer Nitrometris. Tetris blocks used in the game (and Mega Mash) appear to have Cuboy's classic square appearance, these faces coming in pink, green, yellow, red, purple, and cyan. Cuboy in the NES skin image appears in his NES appearance, while the Tetris blocks appear in Cuboy's classic square appearance. Cuboy_Tetris_Game.png|The Nitrome Tetris game with Cuboy in the NES skin Hot Air series :See also: Hot Air (Character)#Design Cuboy's design of his face in its classic square appearance probably influenced the appearance of Hot Air's face, as both have the two rectangular eyes, purple cheeks, and happy mouth. This basic appearance was also carried over into Hot Air 2, where all balloons present in the game (minus the ones made in Hot Air Balloon Maker) were likely designed around Cuboy's face. Although Cuboy did not appear in Hot Air 2, the house of his wife is obviously based off Cuboy's face, as it features the basic appearance of Cuboy's classic square face (rectangular white eyes, 2D circle cheeks, and happy mouth). This house seems to be the most Cuboy like, as along with having Cuboy's basic facial features, it is coloured pink. File:Hot Air.png|Hot Air in Hot Air 1 and 2. Notice how the face resembles Cuboy's classic square face design Square Meal The stone blocks in level one of Square Meal are arranged to look like Cuboy's classic square face. Square_Meal_Cuboy_Cameo.png|The Cuboy reference in Square Meal Snot Put series Cuboy's classic square face seems to have influenced the face of the snot. A Snot.png|A snot from Snot Put. Notice the face, how it resembles Cuboy's classic square appearance Super Stock Take *Cuboy appears on the hat of the chimp. *Cuboy appears on the tie of the Nitrome Boss. *Cuboy appears as a block on a pink block in the game. *In the background of every level, Cuboy appears on: **a box on the middle row of the left shelf. **at the bottom of the right shelf is a box that has Plunger with the head of a Cuboy. **a pile of boxes - to the right of the right-hand shelf - has a Cuboy painted on to it **an elevator has a sign on it that has a Cuboy face and an elevator separated by a →. *Cuboy appears in yellow paint on a few boxes. *A type of 1x1 block has the face of Cuboy on it. *The ware of level three is a floppy disk with a Cuboy on it. CuboySST.png|Cuboy on the tie BlockV22.png|Cuboy in a block BlockV31.png|Cuboy in another block BlockV36.png|Cuboy in another block Super_Stock_Take_icon.png|Cuboy in the icon FloppyDisk.png|Cuboy on a floppy disk as a ware Cheese Dreams 2 demo Cuboy informs the player about a new feature whenever the player goes up to an information hologram. Cuboy also informs the player about the game when the game is first loaded. Cuboy appears in his modern appearance. Silly Sausage Inputting the password "NITROME" will turn the background pink and turn all blocks into 16-bit Cuboy classic square face. File:SSausage-Nitromeffect.PNG|Cuboy's classic square face in Silly Sausage Test Subject Green Dr. Nastidious's 'pda thingy', at the top left corner has a green coloured clasic square face Cuboy. PDA thingy.png|A green classic square Cuboy face can be seen at the top left of the 'pda thingy' Steamlands Cuboy appears as a flag in Steamlands, being able to be purchased on the level Super Paratrooper. File:F17.png|Steamlands Flag Nitrome Must Die Cuboy appears in Nitrome Must Die in the startup and actually in game. In the startup, happy pink Cuboy faces appear in the background, only to be replaced with grey, frowning dark purple Cuboy faces with crossed bones beneath the faces. Nitrome_Must_Die_opening_Cuboy_1.png|The pink Cuboy in the startup Nitrome_Must_Die_opening_Cuboy_2.png|The dark Cuboy in the startup Super Snot Put Cuboy faces appear sometimes on the walls. SScuboy.png|Cuboy in Super Snot Put Rainbogeddon The last level of Rainbogeddon, level forty, is shaped to look like the face of Cuboy. Rainbogeddon_-_Level_40.png|Level forty of Rainbogeddon Oodlegobs Cuboy appears at the bottom-left corner of the large purple/grey computer in the preview for Oodlegobs. MewTube preview.png|Cuboy on the bottom-left corner of the computer in the preview. Cheese Dreams: New Moon Nano Golf: Hole in One One of the courses in Nano Golf: Hole in One is presented in the shape of Cuboy, with conveyor belts as his cheeks. Nano Golf Hole in One - Cuboy level.png|The level shaped like Cuboy Nitrome.com Cuboy is used many times on Nitrome.com throughout the history of the side. Favicon The square face of Cuboy is used as the favicon of nitrome.com. Cuboy face placeholders On the Nitrome pages that had spots for games but no games to fill them, a rectangular, button shaped Cuboy face would be in the place where a link would be. The colour of this face depends on the skin selected. These buttons were replaced in Nitrome.com 2.0 with an outline of a section where a game would go, and a Nitrome.com 2.0 styled logo with a Cuboy face in it. Long Face 1.png|A game placeholder as seen when the Classic skin is used File:Long Face 2.png|A placeholder as seen when the Winter skin is used File:Long Face 3.png|A placeholder as seen when the Retro skin is used File:Long Face 4.png|A placeholder as seen when the Horror skin is used File:Long Face 5.png|A placeholder as seen when the Party skin is used File:Long Face 6.png|A placeholder as seen when the Snowman skin is used Cuboy Upcoming Game.PNG|The new Cuboy-face placeholder for games from Nitrome.com 2.0 onwards Cuboy - Skins.PNG|A Cuboy-face placeholder for buttons of future skins Friday blog updates Cuboy currently appears in each and every Friday end-of-the-week update which Nitrome issues on the Nitrome blog. Bottom navigation panel Cuboy appears to the left of the words "© nitrome limited 2007-2012" near the far left end of the bottom navigation panel. Cuboy_Bottom_Panel.png|Cuboy appears in the bottom navigation panel Demo advertisement :See also: Advertisements Cuboy appears in his modern form on a blueprint, shouting (indicated by the ! in his speech). This version of modern Cuboy only has the outline of his modern appearance, in a style typical of blueprint artwork. New Nitrome blog advertisement :See also: ''Advertisements Cuboy appears in his modern form on a platform, shouting, "Extra! Extra! New Nitrome blog released!" as well as listing some new features. Clicking on the advertisement would bring a site user to the Nitrome blog. Nitrome 2.0 advertisement ''See also: ''Advertisements Cuboy appears in his modern form on a platform, shouting, "Nitrome 2.0 is here!" as well as listing some new features about the new website design. Nitrome logo Cuboy's modernized square face appears in a speech bubble next to the Nitrome logo. Contact page On Nitrome.com 2.0, on a map showing where Nitrome is, Cuboy is used on the map as the location 'pin' of Nitrome's studio.http://www.nitrome.com/contact/ File:Email_Page_Cuboy.png|Cuboy serves as the location 'pin' for Nitrome on the Contact page Icons Cuboy has appeared on the icons of the top navigation bar of Nitrome.com 2.0. '''Profiles' In the upcoming profile feature of Nitrome.com 2.0, Cuboy is shown on the icon in preview pictures. A picture of him is shown, next to a piece of paper that reads "Cuboy".Nitrome.com: http://cdn.nitrome.com/styles/images/site_sprite.png. Nitrome Touchy Cuboy appears on the television of the image. Comments An upcoming comments feature for Nitrome 2.0 will soon be released. To confirm this, Nitrome released a short teaser conversation on December 12, 2012 on the left side of games between two Cuboys. The face of Cuboy appears as the avatar of the two Cuboys that are chatting. Cuboy_Happy_Avatar.png|A happy Cuboy avatar Cuboy_Not_Convinced.png|An unsure or unconvinced Cuboy avatar Nitrome's Facebook page In one of Nitrome's Facebook posts, they had an advertisement encouraging fans to vote for Flightless on Steam. In the advertisement, Cuboy is seen in the thought bubble of one of the main characters, the green duck. The Cuboy square also has a heart above it, perhaps implying that the duck loves Nitrome, since Cuboy represents Nitrome. Skins *'NES' - Cuboy's Rainbow Island parody and Tetris game appear as screenshots in this skin. *'Nitrome 2.0' - A satellite atop one building has Cuboy's face on it. Along with this, the bottom entrance of Nitrome Towers is based of Cuboy, with a large tongue coming out of the Cuboy entrance. *'100th Game' - Purple Cuboy faces with an upside-down mouth and crossbones beneath the face appear on the walls of this skin. *'Touchy' - Various 3D Cuboys appear, mimicking the appearance of characters that have appeared in Nitrome Touchy games. *'Icebreaker' - A Cuboy appears wearing a Viking helmet. Also, another Cuboy appears on the hammer of a statue of a Viking. *'Kraken '- A distressed Cuboy in an Android costume appears being grabbed by a large tentacle. Cuboy has an upside-down smile. *'Jam 2014' - Cuboy appears as a jar alongside several Nitrome Jam characters. Cuboy (NES skin).PNG|Cuboy in the NES skin Cuboy Tetris (NES skin).PNG|Cuboy Tetris in the NES skin Nitrome_Towers.png|Cuboy in the Nitrome 2.0 skin 100th_game_nitrome.png|Cuboy on the background of the 100th Game skin Touchy_Skin_characters.png|The Cuboys in the Touchy skin Icebreaker skin - Cuboy.PNG|Cuboy in the Icebreaker skin Icebreaker skin - Cuboy statue.PNG|Cuboy on the hammer of a Viking statue in the Icebreaker skin Cuboy Kraken cameo.PNG|Cuboy in the Kraken skin Nitromejam2014 wallpaper.png|Cuboy in the Jam 2014 skin Other Nitrome Must Die website The favicon of the site is white Cuboy head that is constantly spinning. This head is possibly meant to be Cuboy's skull, fitting with the theme of the website of killing Nitrome. Interestingly, this is the only situation where the back of Cuboy's head is actually seen. The favicon also seems to look like Cuboy is wearing an Guy Fawkes mask. Along with this, grey Cuboy faces are seen in the background, only having crossbones under the face, and on the face having an upside-down smile. Nitrome Towers :Main article: Nitrome Towers#Nitrome 2.0 Nitrome Tower This version of Nitrome Towers has the bottom entrance given features that correspond to Cuboy's modern square appearance. Nitrome Towers.png|The Nitrome Towers with Cuboy's face on the bottom entrance Nitrome Touchy In the middle of the Nitrome Touchy app icon, Cuboy's smiling face can be seen on the controller. NitromeTouchyApp.png|Cuboy's face is seen in the middle Influences Cuboy's face has been a major influence of Nitrome's early work. Many enemies of the Hot Air series have their face based off Cuboy's. Cuboy has not only influenced Nitrome's first series, but even the art of the snot from Snot Put. Even around the time of the NES skin, Nitrome used various forms of Cuboy. Gallery Cuboy ad.png|Cuboy as seen in Nitrome's demo advertisement AdBlock.png|A broke Cuboy appears when an ad is blocked when playing a distributable game Email Page Cuboy.png|Cuboy on the contact page of Nitrome.com 2.0 cuboy satillite.PNG|Two faces of Cuboy on two sides of a satellite dish building in the Nitrome 2.0 skin Winged Cuboy.png|Cuboy with wings Android Cuboy.png|Cuboy in an Android robot suit Flightless Cuboy.png|Cuboy dressed up as the ducks from Flightless CuboyVikingandHammer.png|Cuboy as a viking and a hammer of Cuboy SnowmanCuboy.png|Cuboy as a snowman with a top hat CuboyJam.png|Cuboy as a jam can Cuboy was a pumpkin.png|The pumpkin version of Cuboy's head Twittercuboy.png|Twitter Cuboy CuboyOnTouchyController.png|Cuboy on the Nitrome Touchy controller and the Nitrome Touchy app icon Cubboy_empty_icon.png|The "coming soon" game icon placeholder Cubboy_touchy_skin_(background).png|The Cuboy inscription in the background of the Nitrome Touchy website NoUnity.png|A message that appears if the player plays a Unity game but does not have Unity Site_no_comments.png|Cuboy in the notice used for a game that has no comments Cuboy_in_a_speech_bubble_in_the_startup.png|Cuboy as seen in the speech bubble for mobile game startups since Silly Sausage in Meat Land Site shop banner Cuboy cameo.png|A boy holding a plastic bag with the face of Cuboy in the banner of the Shop Cuboy Bunny.png|Cuboy dressed as a bunny inside an easter egg to announce the easter avatars Xmas Party.png|Cuboy in a Christmas blog post alongside Smokey Bacon, Stretchy dog, Takeshi, Zapo, Dirk Valentine and the Nitrome Boss broken phone.PNG|A broken phone with a sad Cuboy face as the phone's button in the Super Snot Put Nitrome Touchy warning Sweet Dreams Cartridge.png|The cartridge for 8bit Doves' first level pack with a Cuboy face in the lower part cuboy-cycle.gif|Cuboy from the "Icebreaker Now Has Achievements!" trailer Trivia *Cuboy's presence on Nitrome Enjoyment System material is a reference to Diskun, the mascot of the Nintendo Entertainment System, much like how Cuboy served somewhat as the mascot of the Nitrome Enjoyment System. Notes Category:Characters